Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-11-17
THE MAVERICK SYSTEM.
HOW FORTUNES WERE MADE BY
UNSCRUPULOUS COWBOYS.

The Trick of Gathering a Herd of Young
Cattle-Altering Brands as a High Art.
| Notable Instances of Skillful Altera-
| ton.
"Cattle raising in Texas is not what it used
! to be-" said veteran stockman. II don't
mean to say there's no money in the business
now, only that it is carried on differently
! more legitimately, might say-than it used
to be. Why, when l was just learning to
| stick to bucking ponies, men without a cent
in their jeans We're coming into the state and
branching out as big cattle owners. There
were fortunes made in couple of years that
could hardly be accumulated in lifetime at
the business now. How was il done? I'll tell
you.
"What was known as the maverick system
was in vogue then. A maverick is a yearling
calf that has escaped the branding iron.
Where there were large herds Of cattle it
| often happened that some were overlooked at
branding time, and many were calved in the
bush and ran wild. These mavericks were
considered common property by the stock
man, and whenever he found one he'd rope
it, tie it down and run his brand on it. Then
the ears were sliced to correspond with the
recorded ear marks of the ranchman and the
calf turned loose. Maybe the ranchman was
branding his own stock and maybe he wasn't.
That cut no figure with him.
"In those days we bad no pastures and
cattle were simply loose herded on the range.
| Certain landmarks would be set down as linn
its of his range by the stockmen and his
herders instructed to keep the stock within
these limits. In the morning the herders
would round the cattle in sight to points
within the limits. At night they would be
headed for the salting or bed ground and left
until morning OF course there were many
strays but each ranch sent out hunt in the
spring to round up the herds of neighboring
stockmen and to cut out any cattle found
among them bearing their ranch brand. And
under this system of handling cattle stock
men considered mavericking would even it
self up in the long run. The only qualifca-
tion was that a man should own stock to be
| properly entitled to maverick.
FORTUNES IN MAVERICKS.
"Here's where foreigners coming into the
state pennless got the best of us. Some fell
low worked in COW camp long enough to
learn that there was a fortune for him in
mavericks. He invested his wages in cow
| ponies, went to the nearest town and had
brand recorded. got bag of meal and side
| of bacon, and took TO the bush In less than
year he had 1000 head of young cattle
roaming over the country with his brand on
them. Then he hired some men, built ranch,
and went on a grand round up. All the fat
steers he drove to market, keeping the heifers
to breed from His men were not long in
learning how he had worked it, and then
they brancEed out for themselves In short
time the country was oeerrun with maverick
ers, and pretty soon the most barefaced
thievery ever recorded got to be as common
| as dirt in a corn dodger. Your would be
honest stockmen had to steal to keep even,
and the calves of mich COWS i'll the corrals
were stolen.
at got to be a common thing for the tame
cattle that came in to the ranch for salt to be
followed by calves wearing strange brands;
and this led to the counter branding that used
to make the hides of Texas cattle look like
drawings of choice town lots.
"Here's an instances: had little Durham
heifer, one of the finest shorthorns brought
into the state Her first calf wasn't ten days
old when some of the boys told me that it had
been mavercked. l hunted it up and sure
enough some cuss had run a big B on its
side and undersigned each ear. drove it to
the ranch and put big u after the other
letters, making the brand read B U. Then
sharped each ear, and turned it out The
next time saw that calf both ears had been
grubbed out at the head, and tho brand read
B4U2. Was l mads Some.
ALTERING BRANDS
@Then mavericks began to get scarce as
water on the Llano, and the COW thieves
| turned their attention to altering brands
Old Jim Loving, up in Los valley, owned
about 5000 or 1000 head of cattle They
were all branded with what he called half
diamond L on the left shoulder The half
diamond was over the l. He and took
herd up the Chsm trail to Kansas in II, and
somewhere between Sun City and Fort Dodge
caught up with another herd that had gone
I'D ahead of US. 1t had been sold that day.
Loving counted 200 odd head of his cattle in
the herd. They were all branded on the left
shoulder with an inverted I inside of a
diamond.
"Jim was hopping mad. We learned that
the fellow who sold the herd was red haired
Mexican called Colorau. Getting some of the
boys. we started after him. He got almost to
the Nation Qndian territory before we
caught him. The boys set him straddle of
his own pack horse and tied his legs under
the animals belly. Then a lariat was tied
under his chin, and the other end thrown
over the branch Of live oak, where one of
the boys caught it and made it fast to the
horn Of his saddle. Then Colorau was given
about FIVE minutes to tell over his beads
While the darned skunk was whmpering
something about 'Sancta Maria, Madre de
Dios,' Loving gave the signal The herder
with the rope tied to his saddle horn dug
spurs into his pony and shot away like the
wind. 1t was a forty foot lariat, and he
reached the end with jerk that threw his
pony back ON his launches. That greaser's
neck popped like the report of a six shooter.
sit was the only way to deal with those
fellows and that kind of treatment has made
them scarce. Since we have got to building
big pastures with barbed wire fence around
'em, mavericking and cattle stealing have
about died out. And we don't have to hire
so many herders either. Men ride around
the pastures every day or so to see that the
fences are not down, but they don't carry
branding irons with them. Branding is done
at regular periods now."-Chicago Times
1t Runs in the Family.
Smith, hear your son Patrick is about to
take the vows of the church. ! trust he will